Thought no one would ever ask. :) Here comes the list, the order is important.

Throw everything out.

When done with step 1, repeat step 1 again bc we both know you really didn’t throw everything out.

With remaining [ideally just 3] items, ask, “Is it really really pretty?” If so, it should be displayed in your home in a pretty spot. Ask, “Is it useful, like a wine-bottle-opener type of necessity?” If so, keep it in a drawer.

Unless it’s a piece of furniture, a houseplant, or a 4-legged friend, forbid it from touching your floor.

Counter space is only for items that do not fit inside a drawer/cupboard and are used almost daily — e.g., toaster, Nutribullet, knife block.

Swiffer products should be regarded as essentials like toothpaste and TP.

The person who did not put the TV remote control away in a designated spot shall be banished from the home (or get punched in the face).

Make your bed every morning.

Never go to bed unless the kitchen is clean. (If you dread this, then don’t cook.)

If you find the above 9 steps difficult to implement, then try step 1 again.

Friends and family have seen me in action and tossed out this comment, “You like to clean, don’t you.” I always want to respond with, “Hell, no. I’d like to be on the beach drinking a margarita right about now.” I have to clean because I want to live in a clean place. Pretty sure it’s not an OCD thing, my classroom and my home have harbored enough episodes of disarray and germful cultivation.

It turns out that the above ten steps mirror — in a stretchy kinda way — how I do lesson planning. Something very cathartic about removing stuff.

Throw everything out.

When done with step 1, repeat step 1 again bc we both know you really didn’t throw everything out.

If you’re at all familiar with my teaching practice, it’s what I try to do all the time, like here, here, here, and for the last two months now, I’ve been removing the visual pattern steps and leave kids with just one step to build on.We remove the question when we do notice-and-wonder. We remove the correct answer when we do Which One Doesn’t Belong, we remove anxiety when we do Estimation 180. We invite great discussions when we do #smudgedmath.

With remaining [ideally just 3] items, ask, “Is it really really pretty?” If so, it should be displayed in your home in a pretty spot. Ask, “Is it useful, like a wine-bottle-opener type of necessity?” If so, keep it in a drawer.

I have a hard time letting students use class time to make things pretty.

Conjecture: The “prettier” your students’ individual works are (posters and such), the more class time you’ve wasted. #makeitprettyathome

What’s beautiful to me is a paper full of mathematical thinking — a big mess of it — with scratch-outs and start-overs and AHAs! And I get what pretty is, like anything and everything created in Desmos is pretty. (My students use GeoGebra and Geometer’s Sketchpad too.)

Unless it’s a piece of furniture, a houseplant, or a 4-legged friend, forbid it from touching your floor.

Counter space is only for items that do not fit inside a drawer/cupboard and are used almost daily — e.g., toaster, Nutribullet, knife block.

Steps 4 and 5 make me think of the furniture in my classroom. I’m seriously connecting with some folks to get my walls covered with whiteboards. (Earlier this month, I finally got to hear Peter Liljedahl talk about Building Thinking Classrooms at #OAME2018. Alex Overwijk walks the talk.) I’ve already asked my superintendent/principal if I may get tables next year instead of the same clunky student desks that I’ve had for the last 15 years.

Swiffer products should be regarded as essentials like toothpaste and TP.

Essentials, like equity and access. I’ve become weary of the true deployment of these two words. There are broad guidelines, but looking at my own practice and those around me, I’d be lying if I thought for a moment that we have access and equity all squared away and project nothing-to-see-here-move-along. I’m convinced that every teacher move speaks to how much we care about equity and access. So, the more intentional we can be in our lesson planning — from the questions that we ask, to the groups that we form, to the wait time that we give, to our body language — the more we can make strides in this endeavor.

The person who did not put the TV remote control away in a designated spot shall be banished from the home (or get punched in the face).

All kidding aside (maybe), this one is about respect. Literally, it’s about putting things back where they belong. It reminds me to always give credit to the source, to share the lesson, to pay it forward. The teacher species Herohomo supersapien has been known to beg, borrow, and steal, and now, put it back.

Make your bed every morning.

Never go to bed unless the kitchen is clean. (If you dread this, then don’t cook.)

Fresh starts. Do-overs. We all have bad-no-good-horrible-vomit lessons. We tell our students to pick themselves up and try again, and again. We need to practice forgiving our bad lessons with grace and gratitude. The #MTBoS community gets this. Jonathan’s tweet was part of this thread.

remember that for every mind blowing idea, there 10 crap ones that aren’t necessarily said out loud

I just fell in love! You made me laugh out loud about my housekeeping, my ‘vomit bad’ (Reflection, ‘… did I *REALLY go there…?!?) lessons… AND get excited about how to do both better in the future for my family and my students.

Thank you. And thanks again to Mary Bourassa for finding the GOOD stuff!

Okay, you are Fawn and posts are f’ing amazing. (We are still waiting for the book…)
Like a home, what is on the walls, in the fruit basket, and on the floor need to speak for themselves.

When I walk into a classroom that is decorated to the nines, with teacher generated stuff, I am, “meh.” No amount of crap on the wall can speak for the actions you take. Ever been to a house that has children, but looks like no children live there? Teaching is a little messy in my book. Purposeful mess. (AND I go to bed with a SPOTLESS kitchen!)

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